Authors: Kudakwashe Muzira
Jennifer
frowned. This overweight man was going to slow her. She was fit and had received
military and martial arts training. On her own, she had a slim chance of
survival. But with this fat man slowing her, she had no chance. She hated rule
number one and she told herself that if it became necessary, she would break
the rule and leave him.
The rules say nothing about killing one’s partner,
she thought.
Maybe I will kill him.
“Hi
D5573,” Freddie repeated. “I’m your partner, D5574.”
“You
are not my partner,” she hissed. “You are my liability.”
“Let’s
be nice to each other.” Freddie tried to laugh. “After all we are going to
spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Shut
up!”
“Arranged
marriages rarely work.” Freddie shrugged. “Maybe with time we will learn to
love each other.”
“Stop
trying to be a clown and charge the batteries of your NAST.”
“You
have a point.” Freddie pulled his charger from his pocket and inserted it on a
socket on the wall. “I’m Freddie. What’s your name?”
“You
can call me D5573.”
The
Ward brothers sat in the comfort of the First building, watching live streams
of the death games on Skype.
“This
time the odds are in your favor, Brandon,” Christopher Ward said. “D5573 was a
member of the special branch and she won your sharpshooter competition. If she
manages to get a gun, she might outlive my team.”
“Maybe,”
Brandon Ward said. “But her partner looks unpromising. He is fat.”
“His
file says he is a scientist,” Christopher said. “Perhaps he has a trick or two
up his sleeves.”
The
supreme leader snorted. “This is not a science-fiction film. They will be
facing armed policemen with orders to kill. Your pair is promising. Both look
fit and agile.”
“This
isn’t an Olympic race, Brandon,” Christopher said, hoping his brother was
right.
Brandon
Ward was nervous. He was desperate to win this game. Christopher had won all
their major bets during the past three weeks and this had bruised Brandon’s
ego. Brandon Ward was used to having his way. He was the world’s most powerful
man and he wanted that to reflect in every aspect of his life. When he was in
bed, he felt angry with himself when he failed to satisfy a woman. He was the
all powerful supreme leader and he had to last the sexual distance. At the
dining table with his family, he always made sure he finished his food first.
If anyone else finished first, he felt bad. He believed first place was his
right. He had to win this death game to stop Christopher from bragging.
“Fuck!”
Brandon Ward spluttered. “This looks bad. D5573 and D5574 are arguing. They
have to co-operate. Your pair is co-operating. These bastards will cost me the
game.”
“Maybe
they will come to terms,” Christopher said, wishing for the opposite.
Brandon
wished D5573 would get a gun.
She is a sharpshooter. If she gets a gun, she
can wipe out the fifteen cops chasing her.
But he knew it was difficult for
her to get a gun. His government had cleared all guns from the public. If D5573
wanted a gun she had to kill a cop.
“In
the unlikely event that the fugitives survive for a week, will you give them
amnesty?”
“Are
you crazy, Christopher?” Brandon Ward roared. “These are rebels. I can’t free
them. I gave them hope of freedom so that they will fully participate in the
death games. In any case, none of them will survive for a week.”
The
prison warden appeared on Brandon’s screen. “Excuse me, Your Excellence, Patriot
Brandon Ward. I am speaking live from the Ten Districts Maximum Security
Prison. I’m releasing the prisoners right now. The time is 9 a.m.”
*
* * * *
Danielle
Wright lay in bed, replaying Melissa’s words. “...they will start killing them
tomorrow, four prisoners every week.” She knew there was nothing she could do
to save Michael but she vowed to avenge him. A plan was taking shape in her
mind. She wanted to use her electronic gag to kill President Brandon Ward. She
was going to read newspapers every day to study the supreme leader’s movements.
Ward,
I will get you for taking my son away from me.
She sprang to
her feet.
Maybe I can kill Ward before he kills Michael and Freddie.
She
took out a twenty lucre note and looked at Brandon Ward’s face. Smiling in
front of an oval background, the supreme leader looked like a saint.
Brandon
Ward, you messed up with the wrong woman.
She
sped to the shopping centre. She knew she would lose her life to avenge her
son. For the first time in her life, Danielle bought a newspaper, The National
News, one of Brandon Ward’s mouthpieces.
She
quickly went through the first page, looking for stories about Brandon Ward.
There were two headline stories about the president but they didn’t have what
she wanted, so she went to the next page. And there it was. PRESIDENT TO
INAUGURATE SCHOOL FOR DISABLED. Now she knew where and when she would kill Brandon
Ward. She knew where and when she would sacrifice her life to free her country
from the dictator.
“You can go
out,” the prison warden told the four prisoners. “The police will be chasing
you in two hours.”
The
four prisoners walked through the prison gate.
“I
wish you well guys,” D5561 said somberly.
“The
same to you,” Freddie replied.
D5525
and D5561 turned left. Jennifer turned right and Freddie followed her.
“Where
are we going?” he asked.
“We
are going as far away from here as we can.”
“I
know where to go,” Freddie said. Let’s go to the Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge.
It’s a six-hour drive from here. I worked at the refuge for five years. “It’s seventy-five
thousand square kilometers of wilderness. If we make it to the park we will
have a chance.”
“Taxi!
Taxi!” Jennifer shouted.
A
taxi pulled over and she got in. “In the name of President Brandon Ward, the
supreme leader of the Ten Districts of America, I order you to get out of the
taxi,” Jennifer said with the authoritative voice she used when she was a
policewoman.
“But―”
“I
said get out of the car in the name of Patriot Ward,” Jennifer demanded, not
knowing she wasn’t far away from the truth. She was robbing the taxi to help
President Ward win the first round of the death games.
The
middle-aged driver got out of the taxi. In the Ten Districts of America it was
dangerous to oppose anything that was said in the supreme leader’s name.
Jennifer
went to the driver’s seat. “Get in!” he barked at Freddie. “What the fuck are
you waiting for?”
Freddie
got into the car and she drove away, leaving the taxi driver asking himself why
the CIB had commandeered his taxi.
“Which
way?” she asked.
“What?”
“Are
you deaf? Show me the way to your wildlife refuge.”
“Turn
right and get into Revolution Highway.”
She
accelerated the car, overtaking dangerously. They heard a siren.“Shit!” Jennifer
said, looking in the view mirror. “That cop is us pulling us over.”
Freddie
looked back and saw a police motorbike. “But it’s barely ten minutes since we
got out of jail. Brandon Ward changed the rules.”
“It’s
a traffic cop,” Jennifer said.
“What
does he want? Can’t he see we are running for our lives?”
“I
won’t pull over,”Jennifer declared. She pulled over when she saw that the
policeman was now aiming a gun at the taxi. The policeman parked the motorbike
in front of them and walked to the car.
“You
were way over the speed limit,” he said. “Show me your license.”
“I
don’t have a license,” Jennifer said angrily.
“Then
you are going with me to the station.”
“I’m
not going with you anywhere,” Jennifer declared. “You are interfering with a
police drill. The supreme leader released us from maximum security at nine
o’clock and he said cops can only follow us after two hours. So tell me,
officer, what gives you the courage to go against the supreme leader’s orders?”
The
traffic officer backed off. He had heard about the death games and he knew he
would get in trouble if he arrested Jennifer.
Jennifer
started the car and sped away.
“The
asshole robbed us of three valuable minutes,” Freddie said, looking at his
watch.
“Oh
shit!” Brandon Ward shouted.
“What?”
Christopher Ward asked, taking off his headphones.
“A
traffic cop stopped my team.” Brandon Ward placed his hands on his headphones,
listening to D5573 and D5574’s conversation. “The bloody cop will cost me the
game.”
“No
such worries for me,” Christopher Ward said. “My team is rolling.”
The
Ward brothers were monitoring their ‘teams’ with NASP.
“D5573
has balls!” Brandon Ward said with pleasure. “She stood up to the cop.” He
watched the dot move on his thirty inch monitor. The dot was actually two dots
that had merged into one because D5573 and D5574 were sitting close to each
other. “Come on guys!” he shouted as if the fugitives could hear him.
“My
team is flying,” Christopher shouted.
Brandon
Ward took off his headphones “What did you say, Christopher?”
“I
said my team is flying!”
“Where
is your team going? Mine is going to the Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge. D5574
worked in the refuge for five years. He knows the terrain.”
“My
team is in Patriots Highway. They plan to give the cops a run for their money.”
He closed his eyes as he listened to his players.
“Fuel
is getting low,” D5525 was saying. “We will have to rob fuel.”
“Or
we can commandeer another car,” D5561 suggested. “We just tell the owner that
we are taking his car in the name of the supreme leader.”
“Yeah
man,” agreed D5525. “We just say the magic words... in the name of President Brandon
Ward, the supreme leader of the nation.”
“Yes
guys!” Christopher Ward said. “That’s the way to go.” He turned to his brother.
“Brandon,” he shouted.
Brandon
Ward took off his headphones.
“My
players plan to rob a car in your name when they run out of fuel. Aren’t they
resourceful?”
“Mine
have already done that,” Brandon Ward said.
Even
Assistant Police Commissioner Evans, Brandon Ward’s bodyguard, was caught up in
the excitement. As one of the supreme leader’s three bodyguards, he spent eight
hours a day standing. When he was on duty, he looked at his watch after every
twenty minutes, willing the clock to move faster so that he could go home to
the comfort of a sofa. But today he forgot about his tired legs as he watched
the contest between the president and the senior minister.
Freddie’s
watch was reading 13:29 when they drove into the wildlife refuge. Freddie
directed Jennifer to the staff quarters.
“Stay
in the car,” he said. “I will be back in a moment.”
He
walked to his former cottage.
“Freddie,
thank God you are alive,” Scott said. “Did they drop the charges?”
“No.
I’m out on bail and with luck I will soon be a free man.”
“I’m
glad you are okay, Freddie. I thought I would never see you again.”
“Where
are the others?”
“They
are out in the field, doing the bear project. I stayed behind because I’m not
feeling well.”
“I
just want to pick a few of my belongings.”
“No
one touched anything in your cottage. The CIB said the cottage is a crime scene
and ordered us not to touch anything.”
Freddie
entered the cottage, went straight to his bedroom and took out his tranquilizer
gun. He broke the dressing table’s mirror and put the largest piece of the
mirror in a satchel. A search of the dressing table’s drawers yielded his
Leatherman and a map of the wildlife refuge. In the kitchen, he got four bottles
of milk from the fridge and two packets of cornflakes from the pantry. He also
took two bowls, two spoons, two hunting knives, a rope, binoculars, a torch, mosquito
repellent, insulation tape, a roll of kitchen aluminum foil and jackets. His
satchel bulging with supplies, he ran out of the cottage.
Jennifer’s
eyes widened when she saw the tranquilizer gun. “Is that a gun?”
“Kind
of. It’s a tranquilizer gun. We use it to put animals to sleep.”
She
snickered. “You want to put cops to sleep, I suppose?”
“Start
the car,” he ordered.
“Are
those real binoculars?”
“Yes,
real field binoculars with night vision.” He took out one of the hunting
knives. “This is yours.”
She
put the knife in her pocket.